Brookline's Allyn Burrows begins first season as artistic director at Shakespeare & Co.

Thursday

Jun 29, 2017 at 11:44 AMJun 29, 2017 at 12:07 PM

By Alexander Stevens, Correspondent

Allyn Burrows wanders through an opening in a hedge, and suddenly there it is: a small outdoor platform stage that’s been staked out (but not yet built) in the heart of Shakespeare & Company’s idyllic campus in Lenox.

Both the stage and Burrows represent the theater company’s return to its roots.

Outdoor performances were the defining events of Shakespeare & Company, when it was founded by Tina Packer in 1978 at the Edith Wharton estate in Lenox.

“I was brought up on that mainstage,” says Burrows, remembering his first Shakespeare & Company performances as an actor more than 25 years ago.

Now Burrows embarks on his first season as artistic director of Shakespeare & Company, one of the largest Shakespeare festivals in the country. Seeking stability and direction after a period of flux, the company turned to Brookline native Burrows who knew Shakespeare & Company as an actor, an artistic associate, and a member of the board of directors. One of his first initiatives was to revive its commitment to outdoor shows.

He’ll direct “The Tempest” on the outdoor stage Aug. 10 to Sept. 3, while other productions run at the company’s two indoor stages. (See sidebar.)

This visit to the tranquil little hideaway – Burrows has dubbed it “the Roman Garden Theatre” – is a welcome respite. The theater company is catching hell for the production of “Julius Caesar” in which a Donald Trump-inspired Caesar gets assassinated. The only problem: Shakespeare & Company had nothing to do with that production in New York City.

In their fervor and indignation, Trump supporters have inexplicably confused Shakespeare in the Park in New York with Shakespeare & Company, which resides 142 miles north of Central Park.

Burrows was flooded with emails.

“We’re dealing with a bit of misdirected vitriol,” says Burrows with a wry smile. “Some of these emails are coming in at 4:30 in the morning, so this has clearly kept them up all night. It’s really toxic.”

It’s a serious issue. The Public Theater in New York, which stages Shakespeare in the Park, felt not only the wrath of the right, it also dealt with financial consequences. Various high-profile funders pulled their support of the production. The confusion could potentially impact Shakespeare & Company’s bottom line.

But Burrows, who’s clearly thinking a lot about a theater company’s place in society these days, adopts a positive outlook.

“It’s nice to see that Shakespeare is still eliciting a dialog,” he says. “Four hundred years after he was laid to rest, he’s still helping us figure out how to talk with each other.”

(The protesters also may want to figure out how to read. In “Julius Caesar,” Shakespeare was quite clear about his position on assassinations: They’re a really bad idea.)

Not only has Shakespeare & Company never staged a “Julius Caesar” in which Trump get assassinated, it’s unlikely they ever will. While Oskar Eustis, artistic director of the Public Theater, is unabashedly progressive in his worldview, Shakespeare & Company has generally avoided overtly political productions, and that’s unlikely to change under Burrows.

“You have to decide where you fall on that scale of agitation to entertainment,” he says. “We don’t really do Agitprop Theater, but we do want to do thought-provoking theater.”

Pressed for his own view on political theater, Burrows says he’s more “Chekhovian than Brechtian,” choosing to be more subtle than blunt in the advancement of any political view.

He’s also quick to add that he’s uninterested in advancing his own personal views on any Shakespeare & Company stage.

“I like to [create theater] through collective thought,” he says. “I’m much more interested in what rises up out of conversation than just putting my own personal stamp on something.”

It’s not just talk. Burrows’ highly collaborative style was a hallmark of his eight-year tenure as artistic director of Actors’ Shakespeare Project, which performs at venues in greater Boston, including Somerville and Cambridge.

That part of his resume certainly helped pave the way to Lenox, where Burrows has landed a job that appears to be achingly close to perfect: artistic director of a revered theater company nestled in the Berkshire Mountains. Burrows, who has only lived in Boston and New York, seems to have adapted well to the chill Berkshire vibe: He’s dressed in casual pants, a blue T-shirt and a Shakespeare & Company baseball cap.

But Burrows doesn’t just lounge around on an Adirondack chair, choosing plays while sipping red wine. The hustle for money is constant, and with its $4 million annual operating budget, that’s a lot of work.

So far, so good. Burrows reports that ticket sales are up 50 percent over last year at this point. He thinks it has something to do with staycations and the high-profile season of plays he selected. “Oh, and did I mention luck?” he asks with a smile.

Luck. It’ll come in handy when “The Tempest” tries to dodge tempests for four weeks later this summer.

“This weather makes me nervous,” Burrows says, wandering the grounds on a perfect June day. “It’s too good. I don’t want to use up all the good weather now. I want it to come in August.”